Broomrigg C: small stone circle in Broomrigg Plantation, 1010m south east of Street House

List Entry Summary

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Name: Broomrigg C: small stone circle in Broomrigg Plantation, 1010m south east of Street House

List entry Number: 1015274

Location

The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County: Cumbria

District: Eden

District Type: District Authority

Parish: Ainstable

National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.

Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.

Date first scheduled: 26-May-1960

Date of most recent amendment: 20-Mar-1997

Legacy System Information

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System: RSM

UID: 27738

Asset Groupings

This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description

Summary of Monument

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Reasons for Designation

Stone circles are prehistoric monuments comprising one or more circles of
upright or recumbent stones. The circle of stones may be surrounded by
earthwork features such as enclosing banks and ditches. Single upright stones
may be found within the circle or outside it and avenues of stones radiating
out from the circle occur at some sites. Burial cairns may also be found close
to and on occasion within the circle. Stone circles are found throughout
England although they are concentrated in western areas, with particular
clusters in upland areas such as Bodmin and Dartmoor in the south-west and the
Lake District and the rest of Cumbria in the north-west. This distribution may
be more a reflection of present survival rather than an original pattern.
Where excavated they have been found to date from the Late Neolithic to the
Middle Bronze Age (c.2400-1000 BC). It is clear that they were carefully
designed and laid out, frequently exhibiting very regularly spaced stones, the
heights of which also appear to have been of some importance. We do not fully
understand the uses for which these monuments were originally constructed but
it is clear that they had considerable ritual importance for the societies
that used them. In many instances excavation has indicated that they provided
a focus for burials and the rituals that accompanied interment of the dead.
Some circles appear to have had a calendrical function, helping mark the
passage of time and seasons, this being indicated by the careful alignment of
stones to mark important solar or lunar events such as sunrise or sunset at
midsummer or midwinter. At other sites the spacing of individual circles
throughout the landscape has led to a suggestion that each one provided some
form of tribal gathering point for a specific social group. A small stone
circle comprises a regular or irregular ring of between 7 and 16 stones with a
diameter of between 4 and 20 metres. They are widespread throughout England
although clusters are found on Dartmoor, the North Yorkshire Moors, in the
Peak District and in the uplands of Cumbria and Northumberland. Of the 250 or
so stone circles identified in England, over 100 are examples of small stone
circles. As a rare monument type which provides an important insight into
prehistoric ritual activity, all surviving examples are worthy of
preservation.

Despite limited excavation Broomrigg C small stone circle survives reasonably
well. It is one of a number of prehistoric monuments within Broomrigg
Plantation including small and large stone circles, burial cairns, hut circles
and standing stones and thus indicates the importance of this area in
prehistoric times and the diversity of monuments to be found here. It will
contribute to any further study of the ceremonial function of stone circles
and other spatially associated monuments in the area.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The monument includes a small stone circle known as Broomrigg C. It is located
in Broomrigg Plantation and includes a circle of 14 stones which enclose an
internal area measuring approximately 16m east-west by 13m north-south.
Limited excavation of the circle by Hodgson in 1948-9 found a burial cairn in
the south west quadrant of the circle which covered a deep pit containing a
stone cist composed of sandstone slabs. A short distance to the east a smaller
disturbed cist was found. In the cairn's south east quadrant remains of
several cremation burials were found together with urns and a number of grave
goods including jet beads, a button and a bronze knife or awl. The excavator
concluded that a small stone circle of 4.3m in diameter and represented by the
remaining stones in the south west quadrant was the earliest construction
here. A pit was dug in the centre, and an interment placed in a cist within; a
cairn was then raised over the grave. At a later date the stone circle was
demolished, apart from the south west arc, which was incorporated into the
present surviving larger circle. More interments were then placed within this
later circle. At the time of the excavation there was an outlying stone 14.5m
south east of the circle's centre. The stone has subsequently been lost
however. The socket hole for this stone is however included within the
scheduling.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Selected Sources

Books and journalsHodgson, K S, Harper, Rev K, 'Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. New Ser.' in The prehistoric Site At Broomrigg: The Excavations Of 1948-9, , Vol. L, (1950), 30-42

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